The OSIRIS Database of Global Stratospheric Sulphate Aerosol Extinctions

The OSIRIS instrument has been in operation onboard the Odin spacecraft since the autumn of 2001. During this time OSIRIS has made measurements from which information about the stratospheric sulphate aerosol content has been inferred. This paper reviews the techniques used to retrieve the extinction due to stratospheric sulphate aerosols from the OSIRIS spectrally dispersed limb scattered sunlight radiance measurements. The paper also highlights information contained in the eight year data set including: spatial and temporal information related to UTLS dynamics, information related to the QBO, information on the stratospheric sulphate aerosol content after volcanic activity and long term trends in the background sulphate aerosol. The results presented in this work are from the newest version of the OSIRIS official data products that have recently become available.